Fallen Hope
by Persona
Summary: I've finally fixed the format for this story, it's actually readable now! What happens when the keeper of hope looses hope, and everything else for that matter? Please R


Persona: Well, well, well. Looks like I've finally decided to try my hand at writing fanfiction.  
  
Taichi: God help us all.  
  
Persona: Gee, thanks for the kind words of support. This story takes place during season 02 of Digimon.  
  
Miyako: You mean you're draging us in this as well?  
Daisuke: Why do we have to suffer?  
  
Persona: Bite me. Now shut up before I decide to write something evil!  
  
Daisuke: Shuting up now.  
  
Yamato: There's a first.  
  
Persona: *sigh* Anyways, to get the legal mumbo-jumbo out of the way, I do not, in any way,   
shape, or form, own Digimon.  
  
Sora: Nor will he ever.  
  
Persona: I guess what I'm getting at is: I am just borrowing these characters for the purpose of  
this story. I'm not making any money off this, so PLEASE DON'T SUE ME! Besides, even if you did  
sue you wouldn't get anything. I'm just barely scraping through school as is!  
  
Takeru: Sad isn't it?  
  
Persona: Anyways, I think that should cover my butt. So enough of me and on with the story!  
  
  
  
  
Fallen Hope  
  
By: Persona  
  
*****  
  
The digital world. An unknown relm to most everyone on Earth, yet it is very real and can be very deadly. Though for eight young children, it's become like a second home. One that's been fought over countless times, and for a while thought safe. That was before the arival of the one   
known as the Digital Kaizer.  
  
If you were to look at a map of the digital world now, you would notice that half the map was white while the other half was black. The black areas were sections of the digital world where the Digital Kaizer holds dominance over, while the white sections are areas that are as yet unoccupied.   
  
However, with the arrival of the Digital Kaizer, new Digidestined have appeared and joined forces with the older and more experianced Digidestined to battle the the evil the Digital Kaizer that brought with him into the digital world.  
  
Though the digital world once again has it's champions and defenders, the ongoing battles are begining to take their toll on the Digidestined. Neither side was winning the war, the Digital Kaizer was building control spires just as fast as the Digidestined could destroy them. Both sides were giving their all just to maintain the stalemate, and the shear futility of that fact was begining to show in the Digidestined.  
  
In some more than others.....  
  
*****  
  
"FIRE ROCKET!" The other Digidestined looked on from holding off the enslaved digimon as Flamedramon toppled this area's control spire. With the spire gone all the digimon in the area regained their senses and thus the fight was over.  
  
Everyone's digimon reverted back to their rookie stage as the five children gathered for a small post-victory celebration. Daisuke was happily braging as to how it was Flamedramon who ended this fight, while Iori and Miyako tried in vain to remind him that the others helped out too. Hikari was just glad that no one was hurt too badly, but everyone was generally in a happy mood.   
  
Well, everyone that is except Takeru. It seemed that with each new battle T.K. was getting more and more depressed and had even begun to distance himself from the others. It was a slow process, the others were only really starting to notice now, but these feelings began to stir within him not long after the fighting with the Digital Kaizer had started.  
  
"YEAH! That ought to show Ken that we won't go down without a fight!" Daisuke yelled as they were all about to leave and head back to their world. Everyone noded their consent, save for T.K., who said in a whisper that only he could hear, "And if we do go down, what then?".  
  
*****  
  
"OUCH!" "Get your knee out of my ribs!"   
  
"Only if you get your elbow out of my spine!"   
  
"Both of you shut up and get your feet out of my face!"   
  
These and other various complaints were the norm after returning from the digiworld, more specifically, they were the norm after everyone was ejected from the computer terminal and landed in a heap on the floor.   
  
"Seriously," Miyako started, "we've really got to set up a mattress or something for our return." Iori looked at her with a slight smirk. "And don't you think a mattress in the middle of the computer room is going to look just a little odd?" Miyako thought about this for a moment. "We could say it's for Daisuke. He sleeps through half the class anyway!" "HEY!" This caused everyone, even T.K., to laugh for a while.  
  
"Did I miss something?" Everyone turned to see Koushiro standing in the doorway. "Not really, just some Daisuke bashing." Replyed Iori. Koushiro frowned. "You know you guys really shouldn't make fun of Daisuke so much." Daisuke looked at the others with a smirk, finally someone was on his side! "After all," Koushiro continued "it's too easy. You should at least make fun of someone that's a bit of a challenge." Daisuke promptly facefaulted at this point, bringing with him another fit of laughter.  
  
Koushiro recovered quickly however, as he had come to deliver a message none of them would take too kindly to. "Seriously though, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."   
  
The laughter quickly died and was replaced by curiosity and apprehension. "While you were busy destroying that control spire, the Digital Kaizer was able to finish construction on two more." The others couldn't believe it, after all that fighting all they managed to accomplish was to take a step backwards.  
  
"You're joking!" Takeru exploded. "You mean after all that we've fallen a step behind!?"  
Koushiro was taken by surprise, T.K. was the last person he'd expect to loose his temper. "It's alright T.K." Hikari said, trying to calm him down. "There's always tommorw." Takeru turned his back on the others and only laughed in an almost disturbing manner.   
  
"Tomorrow huh? What good will tomorrow bring? We destroy three spires while Ken puts up five!?" Takeru turned again to face the others. "Is there even a point as to what we're doing any more!!?"  
  
Everyone was stunned, humans and digimon alike, no one had ever seen Takeru like this ever before. "Takeru....." Hikari started, but couldn't finish. She was as stunned, if not more so, as everyone else.   
  
Daisuke, predictably, was the first to recover. "Hey, lighten up T.A.! I don't know what your problem is but you don't have any right to take it out on Hikari!" Takeru's head snaped around and he glared at Daisuke with a look that made even him shut up. You could almost see the fire of anger burning in his eyes, and Daisuke honestly thought that he was planning to beat the living crap out of him.  
  
But this never happened. The look in his eyes vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "I... I'm sorry. Your're right of course." Takeru said quietly, the anger in his voice now gone. He felt the sudden urge to get out of there, as though pained by their looks of confusion and astonishment.   
  
He looked at the group with a weak smile, looking more like the T.K. they all knew. "I've... Just been having a bad day, that's all. I guess that last fight coupled with Koushiro's news was the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back'."   
  
He then looked at Hikari, still a little shaken, but recovering from Takeru's outburst. "Hikari, I'm really sorry. I know you were only trying to help. I hope you can forgive me."   
Hikari smiled one of her sweet smiles that always seem to cheer him up a little. "Of course I forgive you. Everyone has bad days, it's just that I think this is the first time anyone's ever seen you like that, that's why we were all so stunned."  
  
Takeru nodded in understanding, though he still had the urge to leave. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'll be heading home. Maybe some rest will help me unwind." Then without even waiting for an answer, he bid them all good day and left, with a silent Patamon following quietly behind him."  
  
"Well, that was weird." Miyako said after he had left, with others nodding as well. "You're not kidding!" Daisuke said. "That look he shot me, I thought he was out for blood! I was actually surprised he didn't start a fight just now."   
  
Iori decided to join in on the conversation. "I realize that I may not have known him as long as you two have," he said looking to Hikari and Koushiro, "but ever since I've gotten to know him, I've never thought he had an angry bone in his body."   
  
Koushiro looked back at Iori. "I've known him ever since we were first pulled into the digiwold, and up until now, I thought the exact same thing." Hikari frowned. "I think you all are making too big a deal out of all this. T.K. said he was just having a bad day, it happens to all of us."   
  
Gatomon sighed an looked up at her long time companion. "As much as I'd like that to be true, he probably just made that up so we'd pass it off as easily as you're doing now." Everyone looked at Gatomon confused and silent, until Hikari decided to speak up, a hint of worry in her voice. "Is there somethning you know about T.K. the rest of us don't?"   
  
"Well, not exactly. It's just that from personal experiance, I know that no one can be happy and cheerfull twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not naturally anyway."   
  
Miyako raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Always happy and cheerful seemed to describe T.K. perfectly, or at least it did up till ten minutes ago."   
  
"People just aren't naturally like that, those who appear that way only appear so because the feel they have no choice. Is it possable that he feels that because he's the keeper of hope he has to act this way?"   
  
"I don't think so," Koushiro replyed. "In the small ammount of time we were at camp before going to the digiworld T.K. acted just like he always did. Same goes for when we were in the digiworld but had no idea that the crests existed, so it couldn't be that."   
  
Gatomon thought about that for a second and looked out the window with the others watching T.K. leave. "Well, whatever's bothering him seems to be building to a breaking point."   
"Building?!" Daisuke asked incredulously. "It's a little late for that don't you think? I mean, he just exploded right in front of us not ten minutes ago!"   
  
Gatomon gave him a look of annoyance. "What he did was get angry, not explode. If at some point something inside him does snap, I don't think we'll want to be anywhere within ten miles of him."   
  
At that point the room was taken over by an uncomfrotable silence. At least until...  
"Daisuke?" "Huh, what is it DemiVeemon?" "What's a camel, and why did T.K. break it's back?" The others could only blink and look at him. (Insert cliche anime group sweatdrop here.)  
  
*****  
  
T.K. walked the distance to his house oblivious and silent. He didn't even notice Patamon wiggle his way into his backpack so as not to be seen in plain view. In fact, if it wasn't for Patamon reminding him that they arrived at their destination, T.K. would have just kept on walking until something had stoped him.  
  
After saying hi to his mom, T.K. headed straight to his room, where Patamon decided that it was time to confront what was wrong with his best friend. "T.K., for the last few weeks you've been starting to act really strangely. I didn't think it was anything serious, but after that incident in the computer room, that thought was shot down. Can you tell me what's wrong?"   
  
T.K. looked at Patamon with a small smile. "Nothing's wrong Patamon. Just stress I guess." Patamon frowned, in all the time he'd known T.K. he'd never tried to hide anything from him before.   
  
"T.K., you may be able to fool the others, but not me. I've known you too long for that, and I know that whatever's wrong is more than you having 'just a bad day'."   
  
Takeru's smile faded as he looked away from Patamon. "It's that obvious huh?"   
  
"T.K., please tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is, I can try to help."   
  
T.K. sighed and looked to his ceiling. Why not? he wondered. What's the worst that could happen anyway? "All right Patamon. I guess it all started a little while after Ken became the Digital Kaizer."   
  
Patamon was suprised to hear that his problems started so long ago. He must be really good at hiding his feelings then.   
  
"Try not to get mad at this Patamon." T.K. started. Now Patamon was really surprised. For T.K. to worry about Patamon getting mad at him, it had to be someing really serious.   
  
"I guess my problem is... I'm begining to feel that our fight against Ken is useless. Begining to wonder if there's even any point in continuing."   
  
Patamon felt like he was just kicked in the stomach. HARD. He wasn't quite sure what he was expecting. Girl trouble? More problems with Daisuke? Falling grades? Anything but fallen hope.   
  
"But... But why now?" T.K. looked at his stunned friend, though he was taking better that he had expected, he still knew that Patamon was hurt.   
  
"I'm not sure. Maybe it's because the enemy isn't as clear cut as before. Devimon, Etamon, Myotismon, the dark masters, they were all tough and many was the time I thought we weren't going to make it. But at least I knew who the enemy was! Now I find myself fighting former friends and allies! I know that any new friends I make there might become a potential assassin!"  
  
The level of emotion in Takeru's voice seemed to be increasing with each word out of his mouth. Patamon knew that what Takeru said made a certain sence, but it still worried him. His partner's continuing rant added even more worry to the small digimon.  
  
"Hell! Even Agumon was turned against Taichi, and those two were inseperable! Add to the fact that Ken has an evergrowing army to do his bidding, and that even if we give everything we've got and more, Ken's still going to win. Just because we have to return here to rest and carry on with our normal lives. And while we rest, his position becomes even stronger."  
  
Patamon was left speachless. He didn't know which was worse, the fact that T.K. felt this way, or the fact that everything he said made sence.   
  
"T.K., I didn't know you felt that way. Perhaps you should discuss this with the others as well. More to the point, WHY haven't you discussed this with the others?"   
  
A thousand thoughts raced through T.K.'s mind. The fights his parents had, the divorce, the feeling that it was all his fault, that if he didn't bother them so much they would still be together, the promise he made to himself not to bother anyone with his problems again by hiding everything under a mask of happyness.   
  
"I... I just..... Can't."   
  
"Maybe you should. They're your friends, they want to help you."   
  
Is he right? Should I open up to the group? What if I only cause more problems? "I'll think about it Patamon, perhaps the morning will yeld some answers."   
  
With that, T.K. went to bed. "Good night Patamon."   
  
"Good night T.K., I hope you find the answers you seek."  
  
*****  
  
Morning came like any other morning. After waking up, taking a shower, and eating breakfast, T.K. went to school. He still didn't know if he was going to tell the others about how he felt, night wasn't as forthcoming with answers as he had hoped. Little did he know that his answers were about to be revealed.  
  
*****  
  
"Sixteen!?" Miyako asked, mouth agape.   
  
"This has got to be some kind of bad joke." Iori said, not believing what Koushiro had told them.   
  
Over the course of the night, the Digital Kaizer had erected sixteen control spires, expanding his reach even further.   
  
"Well, we won't accomplish anything standing around here talking about it." Daisuke proclamed. "Let's go in there and start bringing them down!"   
  
"WHY! WHAT'S THE POINT!?" Takeru exploded, catching everyone off guard. "What do you mean what's the point?" This coming, predictably, from Daisuke. "We have to save the digiworld!"   
  
"No matter how many we destroy Ken will just put his army to work and build new ones."   
Getting annoyed with Takeru's new attitude, Daisuke responded the only way he knew how. "Oh really? I didn't know you and 'Ken' were on a first name basis now. Are you planning on taking the easy way out and joining him as well?"   
  
That was all Takeru could take, he let his fist fly square into Daisuke's face. He could feel, while the others heard, his nose breaking as he fell to the floor. Blood all over Daisuke and his fist.   
  
The others ran over to Daisuke to see if he was alright. "What are you doing T.K.?" Hikari asked in tears. "He's a Digidestined just like the rest of us!"   
  
"Digidestined?" Takeru spat the name out with a bitterness that chilled the others. "Don't you dare try to lecture me by saying that! I've been a 'so called' Digidestined longer than any of you!"   
  
Koushiro started to get a little angry himself, seeing T.K. yell at Hikari. "What are you talking about? You were chosen along with the rest of us! Myself and the others have been Digidestined just as long as you have!"   
  
Takeru shot Koushiro a look that made him forget the anger he started to feel, and made him start to fear for his life. Takeru's eyes burned with the fires of maddness. "Oh is that so? If that's true, then where were have the rest of you been ever since Ken started to take over?"   
Takeru then made an almost perfect impression of Koushiro's voice.   
  
"'Sorry, we'd love to help but we have lives now!' All you ever did was pop in from time to time whenever you felt like it or when your digimon was in trouble, leaving me to shoulder the burden! Taichi even went so far as to name a no talent, inexperianced, idiot like HIM our leader!" Takeru said, indicating Daisuke.   
  
"Why? Did Taichi see some hidden leadership qualities? Divine insight into the future? Or did he do it because Daisuke sucked up so much and had his goggles broken!?"  
  
Takeru then pulled out his digivice and looked at it in disgust. "If I had known that this thing would have caused me so many problems I would've never picked it up! Whoever made this thing and chose me to be a Digidestined, YOU CAN KEEP IT!"   
  
And with that, Takeru threw the digivice as hard as he could. The small thing shattered into innumerable pieces as it collided with the computer room wall.   
  
No one could believe what he just did, having severed his link to the digiworld he'd never be able to travel there again. Likewise, with his connection to the human world severed, Patamon had no anchor to keep him there any longer and was pulled back into the digiworld, along with whatever was left of the digivice.  
  
"Takeru! Wait! We need you!" Hikari called out to him as be turned to leave the computer room. He never even turned around to give his responce.   
  
"I never asked for this responsiblity, nor did I ever want it. I'm tired of fighting, of not being able to have a normal life." Before leaving he took one last look at them. "Do as you will. I'll have no part of it anymore."   
  
With that he turned and left the room, and a piece of his life, behind forever.  
  
*****  
  
As he left the room, T.K. found himself not in the hall of the school, but in a land he had never seenbefore. Wait, he had seen this place before, it was the digital world. But not as he remembered it.   
  
Strike that, it was as he remembered it during the battle with Piedmon. Bleak, dark, devoid of color. But why was he here? He had destroyed his digivice, he had no key to the digital world.  
  
His thoughts were interupted as a group of digimon passed by in single file, all adorned with dark spirals. That was when T.K. saw him, near the back of the line. "Angemon!" He ran up to the angel digimon and got a close look at the dark spiral around his arm.   
  
"What happened? Didn't you try to fight?" Angemon looked at his one time friend with what T.K. could almost call a look of disgust. "Why? You didn't."   
  
The words stung, but they also were the truth. Angemon continued following the rest of the line until they were out of sight. T.K. didn't have the heart to follow.  
  
After walking a little while he came across what looked to have been the site of the largest battle the digiworld had ever known. "What happened? IS THERE ANYBODY HERE!?" His call was answered only by the wind, and a tiny flicker of light.   
  
T.K. ran to where he saw the light only to find a pile of rubble. He started to dig and immediately wished he hadn't. He held in his hand Hikari's digivice, cracked, and stained with blood.   
  
As he picked it up, it gave one final flicker of light before it died, and became as black as the desolate landscape. Takeru dared not dig any further, terrified of what he may find.  
  
"This is all your fault T.K., you killed us!" T.K. bolted up right in an instant. The voice he knew was Daisuke's, though it was coming from everywhere, and yet, nowhere at the same time.   
  
"After your little outburst in the computer room, we contuned our fight. But aside from me, no one had their heart in it anymore. Ironic, isn't it? The one who carries the crest of hope is the one who instills the shadow of dispair!"  
  
That's when he started hearing the other voices of the people who once called him friend. "Coward!" "Betrayer!" "Murderer!" The voices wouldn't stop, and each word felt like a knife through his heart.   
  
"You said you didn't want to fight anymore." The voice of Daisuke spoke once more. "You've gotten your wish, and all it cost you was the lives of your friends."   
  
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Takeru screamed to the heavens, falling to his knees in tears.   
  
"I may be dead now, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing you'll have to live with the knowledge of what you've done. And I hope that you live a long, long, life." With that, Daisuke's voice then joined the others. "Coward!" "Betrayer!" "Murderer!"  
  
"I tried to warn them." Takeru looked in the direction of this new voice. Unlike the ones currently screaming at him, this one had a point of origin. Before him stood Ken, the Digital Kaizer.   
  
"I tried to warn them of the concequences of fighting me. I offered them multiple oppertunities to surrender." He then indecated the battlefield. "They chose this." T.K. looked at Ken.   
  
"So what do you want Ken, have you come to finish me off?" He asked hopefully, wanting the voices that were slowly driving him to insanity to stop. "No. I don't want to kill you, just as I didn't want to kill them. I'll ask you the same question I asked the others. Do you wish to join me?"   
  
Takeru could almost laugh. So this was to be the final insult then. He remembered Daisuke's words from the computer room.   
  
"Oh really? I didn't know you and 'Ken' were on a first name basis now. Are you planning on taking the easy way out and joining him as well?"   
  
"Coward!" "Betrayer!" "Murderer!"   
  
"Sure, why not?"  
  
Thus compleated his fall from grace, as he took his place at Ken's side, adorned simmilar clothes (minus the glasses and his old hat), and together they crushed any opposition and ruled over all they saw.   
  
They divided the digiworld in half, Ken ruled the left side simply because that's where his base of opperations was located. While T.K. ruled the right, with only the voices in his head to keep him company.  
  
*****  
  
"NOOOOOOO!!!" T.K. bolted upright in his bed, sending Patamon flying almost out the window.   
  
He was drenched in a cold sweat and breathing heavily when he noticed it. Silence. The voices had stoped. Upon further inspection he realized that he was in his room, back in the real world.   
  
He quickly checked the table beside his bed and found that his digivice was still there, and still intact. He then noticed that the crest of hope was glowing on his chest, much as it had during the fight with Apoclamon.   
  
"It was you, wasn't it? You showed me those images didn't you?" The crest glowed brighter, as if in confrmation before fading.   
  
"Ouch... T.K., what just happened?" Patamon asked after pulling himself up from the heap he landed in, he had narrowly missed the open window but found that the wall wasn't much better.   
"Patamon!" T.K. rushed over and hugged his friend, glad that he was alright.   
  
"T.K.? What's wrong?" T.K. smiled a genuine smile, something he felt like he hadn't done in a very long time. "Nothing. Absolutly nothing is wrong." He then looked to the spot on his chest where the image of his crest had appeared.   
  
"It seems as though those answers came after all." Patamon could only look confused as to what he was saying. "Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it."  
  
*****  
  
Morning came like any other morning. After waking up, taking a shower, and eating breakfast, T.K. went to school.   
  
"Hey T.K.!" He looked behind him and saw Hikari and the rest of his friends coming up towards him. "Hi everyone! How are you feeling?"   
  
"Not too bad thanks," Hikari answered "the real question is how are YOU feeling?" Takeru gave another genuine smile. "Much better now thanks. As a matter of fact, I'm glad you're all here right now. There's something I really have to talk to you about."  
  
The End.  
  
*****  
  
  
  
There you have it. My first attempt at writing fanfiction, so don't blame me if it sucked. ^_^   
Wow, even when he's dead Daisuke still won't shut up! Scary thought huh? Please tell me what you think, was it good? Was it bad? Should I be kept away from a keyboard at all costs? Anyway, thanks for reading my story! Ja ne!   
  
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! -Persona 


End file.
